Bears, Bee Stings and Forgiveness in New Comedy ‘The Wilde Girls’

November 07, 2024 at 12:26 PM EST

“We very rarely see a Comedy about sisterly friendship and forgiveness, especially starring two teenage girls and a black man,” said Susan Goforth, lauding “The Wilde Girls” director Timothy Hines, "the humor and heart of The Wilde Girls carries universal appeal and has tested extremely well with over 7000 test audience members."

Timothy Hines’ comedy The Wilde Girls, premiering Spring 2025, hilariously tackles wilderness survival amid real-life production challenges like bee stings, heat, and curious wildlife. Set in 1932, it follows spoiled heiresses Mattie and Tinsley Wilde as they lose their fortune and navigate the rugged Washington wilderness, banished by high society. Despite obstacles, producer Susan Goforth praises Hines’ perseverance, calling it, "The healing laughter the world needs right now."

With a challenging production of hard-to-get supplies, hundreds of bee stings, bugs, dirtiness, a massive heat wave and run-ins with wild animals, Timothy Hines' upcoming new movie The Wilde Girls is a triumph of old fashioned comedy with a fresh take.

In spite of the difficulties of filming a wilderness survival story in the actual wilderness, where wild deer to refuge with the crew to keep away from the constant coyotes that lay in the underbrush mere yards away from filming, Susan Goforth could have spoken forever on the genius of writer director Timothy Hines.

"While we were shooting, wild deer continually walked through our film camps and hung out very close by sensing we were no danger to them, or at least not as much danger as the coyote that dogged us throughout the shoot," reflects producer Susan Goforth in a recent post.

The visionary director who makes the impossible possible, who has created films such as 10 Days In A Madhouse – The Nellie Bly Story, War of the Worlds The True Story, and Tomorrow’s Today -- all Oscar contenders, will see the world premiere of his Comedy movie about wilderness, survival and forgiveness, The Wilde Girls in Spring of 2025.

Hines’ new film, an adaptation of hundreds of personally incollected stories from people alive during the Great Depression, follows Tinsley and Mattie Wilde, two infinitely wealthy teen girl 'karens' from New York City who, in 1932, lose their fortune and are banished from New York high society to the wilderness of Washington state. The movie was filmed in remote and middle-of-nowhere regions of the Pacific Northwest, with the rich aunt scenes and flashback movie footage shot in the East Coast. The film stars Cali Scolari (daughter of Emmy Award Winner actor Peter Scolari), Lydia Pearl Pentz and Teddy Smith.

"Timothy's initial screenplay draft for The Wilde Girls was more of a drama set during the depression, highlighting the truth of life portrayed against the beauty of pre-electrified Pacific Northwest," explains Goforth, "But, as we were recovering from the isolation of the Pandemic, we were laughing hysterically at some of the stories that also made us cry and, just like that, Tim said, Hello, this is a Comedy! How right he was. In the same vein as Paper Moon and Trains, Planes and Automobiles, this is the comedy the world needs right now to laugh with, to cry with, and maybe even heal their hearts with."

As the Wilde sisters immerse themselves in vanity, naiveté and sisterly bickering, with Tinsley demanding to go back to society and Mattie emphatic that there’s nothing to return to, the spiraling-downward, impudent rich girls are comedically faced with what it really takes to stay alive, including moronically evading a hitman sent to assure their demise.

"After careful scheduling, we were met with an unexpected heatwave that brought fresh challenges while filming in the wilderness," Goforth discloses, "The importance of the girls going from riches-to-rags meant extra care maintaining their ill-behaving rich appearance each day before they literally wilted prematurely from the heatwave. One of our stars was allergic to mosquitos, which were at an all time high from the heat, so that altered things further as she couldn't film outside at dusk at all. And Timothy, walking backwards wearing a steadicam photographing and directing, took pause once and sat down unbeknownst in a ground hornets' nest! The bees, also at an all-time high, stung him dozens upon dozens of times, also restructuring our schedule to allow Tim's recovery. But there was no stopping the artistic force known as Timothy Hines. He bounced back from the stings like an Olympic athlete shakes off a torn muscle, saying, this comedy comes down to forgiveness, so everybody shake it off, I forgive the bloody bees. But seriously, he was so stung, I don't know how he bounced back so swiftly."

A misanthropic mountain man, Silas Colter who, after his wife's death decades earlier, condemned himself to the back-of-beyond Washington to punish himself for his wrongdoings, inadvertently becomes the Wilde girls' teacher and surrogate father. It is in this relationship that Tinsley, Mattie and Silas all seek to forgive and heal from their pasts.

"Timothy saw something in Teddy Smith while working with him on the film Tomorrow's Today. Talking with Teddy about The Wilde Girls, Tim could see Teddy understood Silas' search for forgiveness and the forgiveness of his wife Maisy, and, despite Teddy being an absolute city person, Tim knew Teddy would bring that gruff strength and wise heart cultivated by a man living alone in the wilderness for decades that was needed for the character of Silas.

"It was such a treat to see Timothy direct Teddy's performance as Silas. Tim brought out the movie star in Teddy. One day, filming in tall grass with Teddy's character Silas leading the girls and pointing things out to them, a beautiful full-grown Blue Racer, like 5 feet long, slithered across Teddy's foot and, suddenly, Silas disappeared, and Teddy the city man popped out and screeched like a child. He wailed, 'AAAAHHH!!!! SNAKE!!' and Tim was like, 'Teddy, you're scaring the animals screaming like a little kid. You're a mountain man. Mountain men don't scream.' and Teddy said, 'this one do!' We had so many laughs like that throughout filming. And Timothy was right, again. His bet that New York's favorite standup comic Teddy Smith would deliver more than just laughs, was spot on.

"Filming was further impacted by wildlife all around. Deer leaping into shots, foxes, coyotes and raccoons rustling in the bushes and trees, massive bugs, mating birds and woodpeckers drumming added to the soundtrack and also waylaid shooting, though we never crossed paths with the bear people had spotted, thank goodness. The bear in the movie was filmed separately. Even so, overall we were immensely fortunate, and the actors were all so funny and moving in all the right places, thanks to Timothy's incredibly clear, humorous, heartfilled vision. The climax of the comedy deals with quintessential life lessons of forgiveness and comeuppance in the most satisfying ways."

"The Wilde Girls is such a fresh, fish-out-of-water comedy, with these two lovely clueless girls hysterically adrift in the middle of the wilderness,” shares Goforth, “And, within this super funny story, the characters each deal with some kind of forgiveness, which makes for great storytelling. I am so pleased with how the film has turned out and so thankful to be a part of Timothy’s vision.”

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